NAIROBI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it would provide high energy biscuits to thousands of Kenyans facing hunger after fleeing the worst floods in years without their cooking utensils. The U.N. says some 1.8 million people have been affected by torrential rains that have pounded the Horn of Africa this month, forcing tens of thousands from their homes in parts of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea.

"WFP has food in its warehouses in Kenya but the problem is many people were forced to leave their homes by the rising water so they have no firewood to cook food ... They need biscuits to tide them over," Burkard Oberle, director of WFP Kenya, said in a statement.

Aid workers fear epidemics linked to polluted stagnant water, including cholera, malaria and dysentery, could break out. The heavy rains in the region are forecast to continue into at least December.

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